Middle Easterners caught trespassing at Boston reservoir

Seven people from Pakistan, Singapore and Saudi Arabia – the country of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers – were caught trespassing in the middle of the night at a reservoir from which Boston draws its drinking water.

The report by the local CBS affiliate noted that the five men and two women said they were chemical engineers and were in the area because of “their education and career interests.”
Last week, it was reported the FBI alleged a Muslim man who was arrested in a recent terror plot in New York was planning to kill as many as 100,000 people by contaminating the air or water supply in a major U.S. city.

In that case, Ahmed Abassi, 26, was studying chemical engineering at Laval University in Quebec City, reported Canada’s CBC News.

Abassi’s plan did not materialize beyond discussions, but he also has been linked to Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two Canadian residents arrested in the alleged plot to derail a Via passenger train.

In the more recent case, authorities in Belchertown, Mass., told CBS that the seven were trespassing at Quabbin Reservoir, described as one of the country’s biggest man-made public water supplies.

Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs.

Massachusetts state police told the station “there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing.”

Authorities said the FBI was investigating and the inspections of the water supply have been increased. The suspects, who reported addresses from various cities, including Amherst and New York, were being summonsed for trespassing.